Andy Sternberg

State Route 99 cuts straight through the Central Valley to Sacramento via Bakersfield and Fresno (see map below). And if you get too lost in your audiobook after the 5 skirts Angeles National Forest and meanders into the middle of nowhere, you might accidentally end up on it as we did yesterday. We didn't realize our mistake until we took note of the multicolored flowering bushes lining the median of the freeway, obscuring a great...

The inspiring and occasionally hilarious Points West columnist delivered the commencement address to graduating undergrads and graduate students of USC's Annenberg School of Journalism (and Strategic Public Relations) on Friday....

A couple weeks back we interviewed Alex Delyle, managing editor of the West Hollywood-based startup The Daily Reel at the Economics of Social Media conference. "[The Daily Reel] covers online video the way Variety covers Hollywood and the entertainment business," explained Delyle. We also got some tips on making a hit viral video (hint: forget the felines) and that, if you've got what it takes to be the next big Ze Frank or Lonelygirl15,...

The 10th Annual Los Angeles Arbor Day Festival is the latest casualty of the Griffith Park Fire. In a tragic irony, California Wildfire Awareness week will not be ending with a celebration of LA's 4,000-acre urban forest as originally planned. The fest was scheduled as part of the Million Trees LA initiative. Saturday IS Fire Service Recognition Day. Tons of options for family fun on what's forecast to be a beautiful spring weekend after...

If Paris Hilton is allowed to leave the state, she'd surely be on her way to the Capla Kesting Fine Art gallery in Brooklyn, where Daniel Edwards' "Paris Hilton Autopsy" will be on display through the end of May. According to our Mothership, Gothamist, Hilton is said to have commissioned Edwards to create a sculpture of her for the Sunset Strip. Surely, she'd blame this sculpture of her untanned body on her fired and...

While we're unaware of any specific damage to the Greek Theatre, we're certain it's littered with ash and smells-like-burning. So is Nederlander, the production company that books shows at the Greek. Tomorrow night's Loreena McKennitt concert has been moved to the Gibson Amphitheatre. Today's cooler temps helped firefighters get the Griffith Park fire under control. After consuming over 800 acres, the fire is 50 75 percent contained and will hopefully be entirely contained within...

The Good News: Nancy Grace will no longer be on Court TV, at least not until she finally gets to sit in the defendant's seat herself. The Bad News: The diminutive Southern blond rabble-rouser will continue her work as a nightly nuisance on the one-time news channel known as CNN Headline News. In her career as a talking head taking on all kinds of imagined and otherwise biased and inaccurately portrayed wrongdoers, Nancy Grace has...

all photos by Wathana Lim for LAist. Los Angeles may not be know for it's beer. Yet. But if you roll up to a bar with Craftsman on draft, you're about to drink the freshest and most flavorful beer around. So fresh, that it may have found it's way from the fermenting tank to the keg earlier that day. That keg of Craftsman was delivered by Mark Jilg or one of his two full-time...

In like a fox and out with a yodel? Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo for $50 billion. Many have speculated that Microsoft would eventually spring for big Y, as a marriage with the online media giant increasingly appears to be the most viable option to compete with Google in the great war of search and online advertising. Always a fun rumor to kick around, but today it's being corroborated by the WSJ, and considering...

Wilshire & Alvarado - May Day The presence of a police force lined up with riot gear presupposes trouble. And when someone supposedly threw a bottle near MacArthur Park Tuesday evening, it was a call to action. Or as Chief Bratton later rationalized: "Missiles were being thrown at the officers, and officers [were] responding." Last year's May Day march down Wilshire featured amiable members of LA's finest police and fire squads lined up on...